§ Mr. Marlowasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Northampton, North on 16 December, why figures for the prices of 466W whisky and wine in the last 20 years are not available; and on what basis duties on these commodities has been assessed.
§ Mr. Brittan[pursuant to the reply, 19 December 1980]: The appropriate index for measuring price movements affecting households is the retail price index (RPI). But the RPI is designed to measure the rate of price change rather than the average price paid at a given time. Accordingly, information on average prices is only available from the RPI for certain types of food. Representative prices are available for some types of cigarettes and beer, but not for whisky and wines.
Information on the price of whisky and wine over the last 20 years is available from alternative sources, but the figures are not comparable with those taken from the RPI. I will write to my hon. Friend on this point. Duty on spirits, including whisky, is charged on the basis of the volume of spirit its alcoholic content. Duty on wine is charged on the basis of the volume of wine at different rates according to its alcoholic strength.